Although most people in the United Kingdom have done better at recycling household waste there are still some areas in which people are falling behind. One of these areas is battery recycling, in which the United Kingdom ranks near the bottom of the European Union. Battery recycling is important for many reasons but mostly because batteries contain corrosive chemicals which eventually leak out of the battery casing. These chemicals leech into soil and eventually end up in drinking water where they can poison the supply and pose a range of health issues to human beings. The European Recycling Platform is using the upcoming Christmas season to raise awareness about battery recycling.
The Christmas holiday is important for battery recycling because nearly half of the six hundred million batteries purchased in the United Kingdom will be purchased during the holiday season. When the BRP asked more than two thousand adults in Britain about their recycling habits they found that although households were recycling many different kinds of waste effectively, that only a small percentage actually recycle batteries. The numbers show that only around three percent of batteries are recycled and that the rest are being disposed of improperly in landfills. Many UK retailers like Tesco and Sainsbury’s have launched schemes which will allow customers to recycle batteries at drop off points in their stores.
According to a new regulation all shops selling more than a four pack of AA batteries each day will be forced to have recycling drop off points in their store.
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